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How can you help? Get angry.

(Cross-posted from my Google Plus)

If one more person tells me how sorry they feel that *I* am hurting about the Zimmerman verdict, I am going to punch them in the face. My pain is not the problem here. I don’t need you to be sad FOR me. I need you to be angry WITH me. I need you to see and understand WHY this is fucked up. I need, god, I need a little faith in humanity right now, because I don’t fucking have any left. I need a reason to believe that enough people will be outraged by this to… to do SOMETHING. ANYTHING. Talk about it. Scream about it. Be angry enough to make changes. To force changes. Angry enough for this to matter, for you to remember it the next time someone tries to tell you racism is dead or that profiling is ok or that justice works just fine. I don’t need people holding my hand and hugging me and asking if I want tea and trying to jolly me out of my mood. You’re not helping. You are part of the problem. I need to not feel so all alone and helpless. I need you to be furious. I need you to be on fire with the need to know more, to understand more. I need you spending the next month frantically reading every social justice blog and paper and twitter feed out there, desperate to understand how and why this could have happened, hungry for a way to keep it from happening again.

And if that’s not you – if you can’t do that, if you’re not that angry, if you’re not on fire with it – then DO NOT TALK TO ME RIGHT NOW. There is nothing you can say or do that will help. All you will do is convince me further that the dawn is never coming.

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3 thoughts on “How can you help? Get angry.”

You betcha I’m angry. The freaking prosecution rolled around in the mud and didn’t do their job, and the goddamn jury probably were racially biased, because not guilty should NEVER have been a verdict. The poor kid wasn’t even armed, and you sure as hell can’t ever claim that you can kill anyone with iced tea and skittles, when the other person has a loaded gun.

I completely agree with your anger, frustration, and desire to DO something. There is a great feeling of impotence when something like this happens. If it were a bad law (see: Texas), a lawsuit could be filed. If it were a bad Supreme Court decision, a new law or amendment could be written. But a bad jury decision?
I am pissed at the judge for refusing to allow discussion of “racial profiling,” when everyone in the country knows that is exactly what this was. I am pissed at the defense attorneys for misleading and misdirecting everyone’s attention to red herring arguments. I am pissed at the prosecution for actually following those red herrings rather than sticking to the real arguments. I am pissed at those six Sanford women who just let a murderer free.

I want to sign the Ben Jealous petition to ask Eric Holder to file a civil rights case against Zimmerman. I want Trayvon’s parents to file a civil suit.

Just one minor point that i disagree with you on — go a little lighter on the friends and family that are concerned with your feelings. While you know that my species disappoints me on a regular basis, there are a few special people in this world who have the ability to be outraged over an issue AND be concerned about their loved ones personally as well. You attract special people to your life. Let them be concerned with you as well as the issue.